


Artemis and armour

by slightly_ajar



Series: Coping strategies [1]
Category: MacGyver (TV 2016)
Genre: Angst, Episode: s02e02 Muscle Car + Paper Clip, Protective Jack, Team as Family, What if?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-26
Updated: 2018-05-26
Packaged: 2019-05-13 22:42:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,558
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14757683
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/slightly_ajar/pseuds/slightly_ajar
Summary: A missing/what if scene from the episode Paperclips and Muscle car, with Jack and Mac taking Riley to her rendezvous with Bedlam74.  It’s a prequel to one of my stories called Wild Turkey and Percentages, I don't think you have to have read that story for this one to make sense.“I still don’t like this.” Jack was emphasizing his words with angry strikes with his hand to the steering wheel.  “She’s shouldn’t be in there without back up, she should…”“I’m in the car with you!” Riley growled, losing her patience, “Stop talking about me like I’m not here!”





	Artemis and armour

**Author's Note:**

> I’ve written this as a prequel to one of my stories called Wild Turkey and Percentages. You don’t have to have read that story for this one to make sense, but if you’d like to you can find it here. What started off as a vague idea in my head is part of a series, I’ve finished the third part, the sequel to Wild Turkey and Percentages, which will post it in a couple of day. It’s a funny old world.
> 
> The idea for this story and Riley’s line “Isn’t there a kitten stuck up a tree somewhere?” come from a song called Not a Pretty Girl by Ani Difranco. I heard this song for the first time recently and thought that there was a certain Riley-ness to it. If you’d like to listen to it you can find it on YouTube [here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BWQ3KHk_QE).
> 
> This is un-betaed so I apologies for any spelling mistakes or bizarre word placements. If you let me know of any you spot I’ll fix them. Thanks
> 
> All comments and kudos are deeply loved and if you want to come and say hello on Tumblr I’m there as [Sky-larking](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/sky-larking)

Bozer saw them off with hugs and an overly enthusiastic pep talk. 

“You’re going to be awesome, Riley! You can totally do this.” He gave her a thumbs up. “I’m going to be in the War Room with Matty to watch you smash it. We’ll celebrate when you get back. We haven’t got any champagne but we can shake up some bottles of lemonade or something. Be safe, guys.” 

Riley thought that Bozer was being so cheerful to try to compensate from the chilly tension that had settled over her, Jack and Mac. Jack had strapped a gun to his thigh and gritted his teeth and Mac was pretending not to notice his stiff shoulder and tensed jaw. He was talking about which route they should take to get to the coordinates Bedlam74 had sent her, deliberately suggesting the long way round to try to distract Jack into disagreeing with him. 

Jack slammed his foot down onto the accelerator and they left the Phoenix building with a roar and a squeal of tires. He and Mac sat in the front seats of the car with Riley in the back. The friction that had been thrumming between them all back in the Phoenix building intensified as they travelled through LA’s dark streets. 

“I don’t like this, man. This whole thing feels off, my gut does not like it.” 

“Maybe that’s not the mission, Jack. Maybe that’s just your lunch.” Mac joked, trying to defuse some of the tension. He didn’t like it when they were arguing, Riley knew that he liked their little wolf pack of a family to be content and friendly. Anger within the group made him uneasy like a child becoming upset when their parents are fighting. 

Riley shifted uneasily in her seat. She felt as though a fist was grasping and twisting deep inside her. It was the same fear and tension used grip her gut in prison before she went in the yard with the other inmates. An oppressive feeling like something harsh and malevolent looming over her, inches from her skin, which she couldn’t shake off or outrun. She pressed her nails of her right hand into her thumb, trying to centre herself by concentrating on the small points of pain. 

“I said to Matty that she needs more experience, that’s not a criticism but it is the truth.” Jack was ranting, gripping the steering wheel so hard that his knuckles had turned white. “I don’t like this, man. We have other agents at Phoenix who could do this. Like that new girl, Joan.” 

“Jill, she’s called Jill. And Bedlam74 asked for Artemis. Jill is good at what she does but she’s not Artemis37, only Riley will be able give them what they want.” Mac turned and gave Riley a quick, quirked smile that was probably supposed to look reassuring but just made him look worried. 

Riley nodded to him and then stretched out her fingers from the grip they’d been in, leaving behind small curved marks in her thumb. Then she did what she used to do when she was getting ready to leave her cell, she took a deep breath, straighten her spine, pushed down her shoulders and lifted her chin. She became Artemis37. She’d taken the name of her alter ego from the Greek goddess of the hunt. The daughter of Zeus and twin sister of Apollo. Riley would be as bold as that goddess and as undaunted. All the fear and doubt that was pulsing inside her, fear of whether she would stay strong or if the memory of taking a life would leave her frozen again, would be locked away inside the armor that Artemis gave her. 

“I still don’t like this.” Jack was emphasizing his words with angry strikes with his hand to the steering wheel. “She’s shouldn’t be in there without back up, she should…”

“I’m in the car with you!” Riley growled, losing her patience, “Stop talking about me like I’m not here!” 

“I don’t like it, I just think that this isn’t safe, It…”

“I’m not a child, Jack. I’m not a damsel in distress.” the centred calm Riley had been attempting to gather around her slipped, “I survived all those years in prison without you so you need to get over this knight in shining armor fixation you’re having.” 

“Riley…”

“No. If you want to be a hero that’s fine but I don’t need one. Find someone else to rescue. Isn’t there a kitten stuck up a tree somewhere? Why don’t you ride upon your white charger and save that instead?” 

A tense, uncomfortable silence filled the car. They stopped at a traffic light and each of them avoided making eye contact with the other. Riley and Jack looked out of their windows and Mac picked up the listening device he had created and made unnecessary adjustments to the wiring. 

“I just…” Jack tensed and flexed his jaw. “It’s not that I don’t trust you but I don’t like this. Those guy are hardcore and I don’t like that you’re going to be alone in there.” 

“We are going to be able to hear what is happening,” Mac said, holding up the little box in his hands, “we can get to her if anything goes wrong.” 

“Just because you threw something together with headphones, duct tape and whatever bits of nonsense you found lying around it doesn’t mean that everything will be okay!” Jack raised his voice, scowling at Mac with narrowed, sharp eyes. “It doesn’t mean that we can all stop worrying because Mac has improvised something so now everything is peachy!” 

“Don’t yell at him!” Riley pulled herself forward with a hand on the back of Mac’s seat, trying to be closer to Jack, wanting to take hold of him and physically make him relent. “He’s actually done something that is going to help me instead of going on and on about how he doesn’t think I’m capable of looking after myself. Maybe you think that is helping Jack but it really isn’t.” 

“I know you are capable, Ri,” Jack ground the words out slowly through gritted teeth, “It’s the whole situation that is wrong. I don’t like this mission and I don’t like this plan.” 

“Would you be acting like this if it was Mac who was going in there?” Riley asked. “I didn’t see you kicking up a fuss about Cage going to meet that ambassador alone and she hasn’t got any back up.” 

“It’s not the same.” Jack’s eyes met hers in the rear view mirror. “It’s not the same.” He blinked, breaking their connection and looked back at the road in front of them. “They’ve both had more training and experience.” 

She understood what Jack wasn’t saying. Jack didn’t carry guilt from leaving Mac and Cage when they were children. He didn’t feel like the need to atone for the past with them. Riley knew that he was worried because he loved her but his anxiety felt like a judgment not an expression of affection. She was doing what she could to manage her own fear, she didn’t need to be burdened with his too. And she wasn’t a little girl who didn’t have a dad, she was an agent going into a mission who needed the support of her team. 

Riley closed her eyes for several long beats and focused on pulling in the coils of her anger and fear and tucking them away inside herself. 

“Please just let me do this, Jack.” She forced her voice into a low, clipped cadence, “I need to do this on my own. I need you to let me do this on my own.” 

Jack shook his head, sighing. He tightened his grasp on the steering wheel again as if he was gripping onto his urge to take hold of her and pull her away from the mission. 

Mac cleared his throat, “We’re a few blocks away.” He said as he put the box back on the dashboard. “We should drop you off here in case they’re watching the roads for your approach. We’ll follow you and then park close by to back you up.” 

“We should get a little closer,” Jack said, “so we can watch you walk into the building. I want eyes on you for as long as possible” 

Riley shook her head. “No, here is fine, Jack. Mac is right, hackers are paranoid and they will probably be watching the streets around their warehouse.” 

Jack huffed then pulled the car over to park in part of the road that was outside of the glow of streetlamps. He turned to Riley, anxiety lining his face, “Riles, we’ll be listening the whole time and we’re only about twenty seconds away. If you need anything at all just yell and we’ll come running. Be smart and be careful in there, okay? I’m right here.” 

“Don’t worry, Jack, I’ve got this.” Riley put all the confidence she could into the smile she gave him. Shifting her gaze to Mac she tapped the back of his seat twice as a farewell, he met her eyes then smiled and nodded in response. 

Then she climbed out of the car and pulled her backpack onto her shoulders. “Come on, Artemis,” she said out loud to herself in the empty street, “let’s go.” 


End file.
